Aiming for synergies between global health security and global health equity, with help from a Framework Convention on Global Health

This chapter explores the challenges that come with applying the term inequity at the global level; for it suggests that global health is – or should be – a collective effort to reduce differences in health outcomes between all people worldwide that are unnecessary, avoidable and unjust. It utilizes ‘narrowly defined health security’ as shorthand for health security that emphasises infectious disease control, and ‘broadly defined health security’ as shorthand for health security that rests on strong and effective health systems. Global health security is – much like global health equity – a frequently used but ill-defined expression. Thus, the realisation of all elements of the right to health and the health Sustainable Development Goal would contribute to global health security. A Framework Convention on Global Health would allow to clearly articulating the responsibilities of states, domestically and internationally, to improve global health security as well as to promote global health equity.